Questions are more of faith...
Trent of Gracehead.com by way of an absolutely marvelous post got me thinking about the whole question/answer thrust in contemporary Christianity. Then today was this post by Robbymac, and I felt the urge to quickly get some thoughts down.
QUESTIONS
Here's a great quote from Christian author and singer John Fischer.
Says Fischer: "Questions leave us vulnerable, weak, needy. They open up the gaping holes in our personality, our theology, or our lifestyle. Questions force an honesty that we are unwilling to confront an honesty that requires us to live with our lives unresolved. We don't like that, especially when we're trying to sell a theology that Christianity is the answer to every problem we face."
With questions you have relationship. With questions both parties lean toward one another. If one knows the answer, in love, they may whisper it to you, or they may, knowing you, illustrate it in such a way that you may grasp it, or they may come back with another question that guides your thinking/searching/knocking. And if they do not know, in love, they think and reason with you. With love, there is no dismissal, there are no nice pat you on the head pleasantries that mean "Silly little child, you just don't get it, listen to the adult folk more, learn more, and then we can have a conversation when you've caught up." With love there is engagement, the temporary intertwining of lives and minds.
Finally the faith aspect. Questions are the mental posture of reception. A true question is not trying to score points, for any such matter is a deception. For in doing so one is really disguising a statement in the form of a question. Now there are many times when this "tactic" is necessary, but one should be wary of its use towards God the Father (not that He'll zap you, it's simply a pointless activity). But true questions have the posture of not knowing, not being sure, not able, all the realities that we have apart from Christ. Questions often are a representative of faith reception. They are coming to the One Who is the Truth. Coming for revelation seeing the Way in a new way, a deeper way. Through questions we get go deeper, through questions we go through.
ANSWERS...
Are where there is usually disengagement. Not that answers are bad in and of themselves. Answers and questions are simply tools. Just as fire is so, any tool can be misapplied or used malevolently. That being said, our focus on having the answer, on being propositionally right, on having our proof-texts all lined up, more often than not, does some violence to our relationships. It ends discussion and dialogue. It is a method to lord over another because you have superior knowledge therefore you are of higher worth or deserving of greater honor. More often than not our answers are not from an attitude of love (not that WE ourselves can drum up this attitude by our own self-effort BTW), but from pride or some other insecurity.
The faith issue. Having a lot of answers often means having a lot of pride. There is a strong correlation -- BUT IT'S NOT 1:1. There are many wise people who have plenty of answers, but those who know Love and do love they don't have a strong bent as some of us (like me) seem to find a way to show how much we know.
So often we connect knowing with answers, but is that always the case? Do the ones..using a natural parable here...who deeply know some thing, the artists, the genuises, can they give an answer to much of what makes them great in our eyes. They may know the path that got them there (their history) but more often than not their response is not an answer but a shrugged shoulder, "I just do," or the powerful "I just am." And then the advances we esteem, they are not from our greats who had the answer, no, they were from the ones who asked better questions. Through better questions they were opened to becoming closer to the object of their purpose.
So can it be with us who follow Christ? Is He not our object, individually and corporately? Perhaps, we know the Way (Christ Jesus, a person) NOT through answers, no, but how about beginning to know the Way through the humility of questions?
QUESTIONS
Here's a great quote from Christian author and singer John Fischer.
Says Fischer: "Questions leave us vulnerable, weak, needy. They open up the gaping holes in our personality, our theology, or our lifestyle. Questions force an honesty that we are unwilling to confront an honesty that requires us to live with our lives unresolved. We don't like that, especially when we're trying to sell a theology that Christianity is the answer to every problem we face."
With questions you have relationship. With questions both parties lean toward one another. If one knows the answer, in love, they may whisper it to you, or they may, knowing you, illustrate it in such a way that you may grasp it, or they may come back with another question that guides your thinking/searching/knocking. And if they do not know, in love, they think and reason with you. With love, there is no dismissal, there are no nice pat you on the head pleasantries that mean "Silly little child, you just don't get it, listen to the adult folk more, learn more, and then we can have a conversation when you've caught up." With love there is engagement, the temporary intertwining of lives and minds.
Finally the faith aspect. Questions are the mental posture of reception. A true question is not trying to score points, for any such matter is a deception. For in doing so one is really disguising a statement in the form of a question. Now there are many times when this "tactic" is necessary, but one should be wary of its use towards God the Father (not that He'll zap you, it's simply a pointless activity). But true questions have the posture of not knowing, not being sure, not able, all the realities that we have apart from Christ. Questions often are a representative of faith reception. They are coming to the One Who is the Truth. Coming for revelation seeing the Way in a new way, a deeper way. Through questions we get go deeper, through questions we go through.
ANSWERS...
Are where there is usually disengagement. Not that answers are bad in and of themselves. Answers and questions are simply tools. Just as fire is so, any tool can be misapplied or used malevolently. That being said, our focus on having the answer, on being propositionally right, on having our proof-texts all lined up, more often than not, does some violence to our relationships. It ends discussion and dialogue. It is a method to lord over another because you have superior knowledge therefore you are of higher worth or deserving of greater honor. More often than not our answers are not from an attitude of love (not that WE ourselves can drum up this attitude by our own self-effort BTW), but from pride or some other insecurity.
The faith issue. Having a lot of answers often means having a lot of pride. There is a strong correlation -- BUT IT'S NOT 1:1. There are many wise people who have plenty of answers, but those who know Love and do love they don't have a strong bent as some of us (like me) seem to find a way to show how much we know.
So often we connect knowing with answers, but is that always the case? Do the ones..using a natural parable here...who deeply know some thing, the artists, the genuises, can they give an answer to much of what makes them great in our eyes. They may know the path that got them there (their history) but more often than not their response is not an answer but a shrugged shoulder, "I just do," or the powerful "I just am." And then the advances we esteem, they are not from our greats who had the answer, no, they were from the ones who asked better questions. Through better questions they were opened to becoming closer to the object of their purpose.
So can it be with us who follow Christ? Is He not our object, individually and corporately? Perhaps, we know the Way (Christ Jesus, a person) NOT through answers, no, but how about beginning to know the Way through the humility of questions?
posted by GBT at
Thursday, November 03, 2005
